When the Royal Navy Rugby Union Under 23 team travelled to RAF Halton to begin the defence of their Inter Service title I doubt anyone would have predicted that they would make such a successful start. With the first of the 3 matches played between the Army and the Royal Air Force ending in an Army victory 19 - 13, the Royal Navy side knew that they would have to work hard to come away with a win. However that is exactly what they did, scoring 43 points to the Royal Air Force's 7 and setting themselves up to secure the U23 Inter Service title for the third time in a row. It was a bright afternoon at the home of RAF sport with the very strong winds causing disruption to both the li...
Stepping out for the Royal Navy Rugby Union for the first time this season is fly half Daniel Rutter. At twenty one years of age he joined the Royal Navy in July of this year and couldn't wait to get his hands on a rugby ball. Nicknamed 'Rutts' he is currently doing his phase 2 professional training course at HMS Sultan as an air engineering technician. His rugby playing career started at the age of ten in his home town of Redruth in Cornwall and he quickly found success the following year in the Under 15 category, reaching the finals of the Daily Mail Cup competition. Daniel also found time to play the 7s variant of the game and was an All England 7s Champion i...
This Wednesday the Royal Navy Rugby Union Under 23 team start their bid to win three Inter Service titles in a row. Following on from their success in 2015 and 2016, the team from the Senior Service will travel to RAF Halton to take on the RAF U23 side, kicking off at 1400. The RAF are already on the back foot, having lost away to the Army U23s last Wednesday 19 - 13. They will be keen to avenge the defeat and keep themselves in the competition. However the RNRU U23 team and management have very different ideas and are determined to come away with a win. Assistant Director of Rugby, Lieutenant Commander Aidan Riley explains the challenges...
In the run up to the Under 23 Inter Service Rugby competition we have taken some time out of the busy training schedule to get to know a few of the players a little better. Over the next week or so we will be running a series of short articles where you can learn more about the players, what they do in their day jobs and how they first got involved in playing rugby. First up is U23 team captain, Scott 'Scotty' Makepeace. Scott only joined the Royal Navy in March of last year and after his initial training at HMS Raleigh he went to HMS Sultan in Gosport to do his professional training as an aircraft engineering technician. He completed his professional training at Royal...
On 3 November a team made up from players from the four Mine Counter Measures (MCM) Vessels deployed in the Gulf in support of Operation Kipion took on the Bahrain RFC Veterans side, affectionately known locally as the ‘Golden Oldies’ (though a couple of younger players were required to bolster the backs). The match was split into four short and sharp periods of 15 minutes on account of the heat and humidity. The MCM team were overwhelmed by numbers in the pack, Bahrain was able to rotate the entire eight each quarter which gave them the edge against their younger opposition. The backs were not so lucky and a number of players needed to take up post out of their custom...
